Order picking of filled containers, e.g. beverage bottles, in filling lines is usually accomplished by palletizing robots or packaging robots which assemble the filled containers in handling units, e.g. collective handling units or transport handling units. For instance, similar containers are initially consolidated in collective handling units such as boxes, cardboard packagings, foil wrappings or the like, and are then packaged as a transport handling unit on a pallet for the delivery thereof.
The number of the containers transportable on a pallet is limited, for instance, by the packing density of the containers in a handling unit layer and by the maximally permissible top load carrying capacity of the containers. For instance, if bottles having round cross-sections are transported, it is inevitable that large surface areas of the pallet are not used for the transport. If the containers are arranged on the transport pallet in multiple layers the number of the layers is limited, inter alia, because the containers placed on the containers of the lowermost layer must not exceed a certain weight. In general, this limitation is predetermined by the top load carrying capacity of the containers.
As filling plants for beverages or pharmaceutical products become increasingly complex and allow the production of diverse containers, it would be desirable to render the picking and packaging of the containers more flexible as well, especially with respect to an improved exploitation of the available pallet surface area and the permissible volume and weight of the handling unit. Thus, there is a need for a method for assembling handling units, which has been improved in this regard, and for a correspondingly improved device for packaging and picking filled containers.